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Mount Washington and the Village of North Conway
Bradford Freeman (1839-75)
Signed lower left: BRADFORD FREEMAN (in red)
Not dated; most likely 1860s
Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches
John J. and Joan R. Henderson
With its pastoral foreground, the village of North Conway in the middle distance, a dramatic background of storm clouds, and a misty rendition of Mount Washington, this scene by Bradford Freeman is reminiscent of John Frederick Kensett's painting Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway. Freeman's painting provides a remarkable record of North Conway village at a specific moment in time. Some of the larger public buildings can be identified. One is the North Conway Academy, a school building that later became the studio of artist George Inness. A second, the Washington House, was one of many private residences to be converted for lodging tourists. A third, the Kearsarge House, owned and operated by Samuel Thompson, had, in 1861, replaced the smaller Kearsarge Tavern, where many of the artists who came to North Conway to paint in the 1850s had stayed.
